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Can you tell us about your background?I obtained my Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from University of Copenhagen, Denmark in 2006, and then received postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen F. Traynelis in the Department of Pharmacology, Emory University School of Medicine. I moved to University of Montana as Assistant Professor in 2013, where I am a faculty member of the Department of Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Center for Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics (CBSD), and the Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience (CSFN).

Can you summarise your research and role now?The overarching goal of research in the laboratory is to enhance the synthetic pharmacology of NMDA receptors (i.e. to develop novel agonists, antagonists, and modulators), and to identify and validate new strategies and targets that can be exploited for therapeutic intervention in CNS disorders.

Why is this research important?There is a huge unmet demand for better treatments in many psychiatric and neurological disorders. For some of these disorders, it may be necessary to identify, previously unrecognized targets based on more advanced understanding of the disease mechanisms in order to develop new therapeutic agents that can improve treatment outcome.

What techniques do you use?The laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes electrophysiology, synthetic biology, molecular screening, biochemistry, structural biology, and molecular modelling.

What Hello Bio products do you use in your research?Various subunit-selective NMDA receptor modulators, such as CIQ, ifenprodil, QNZ 46, TCN-201, as well as competitive antagonists (D-AP5, DL-AP5, PEAQX) and channel blockers (memantine, MK-801) of NMDA receptors. We use many other ligands for other receptors as well.

Why are you using those particular products / what are you using them for?We are using these ligands to isolate specific populations of NMDA receptors in neuronal recordings. In addition, the binding sites on the NMDA receptors remain elusive for many of the subunit-selective NMDA receptor ligands and we are attempting to map these sites and to investigate the relationship between structure and function of NMDA receptors.

What has using these products helped you to achieve?Among many interesting discoveries, perhaps the most recent and most significant is that we identified the binding site for TCN-201 and described the mechanism of action for its subunit-selective inhibition of NMDA receptors. This work opens new avenues for the development of therapeutically-relevant NMDA receptor modulators.

What are your ambitions for your future career?Have fun doing good research and at the same time, provide scientific breakthroughs that can translate to new treatments for patients in the future

Thanks for sharing your research with us Kasper - and we hope you achieve your ambition of having fun whilst contributing to scientific breakthroughs!

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